Please
by Cookiethursday
Summary: Early mornings could be so nice.
1. Chapter 1

"Where are you going?"

The whisper seemed loud in the still night air, and they both cringed, casting fearful and guilty glances toward the door. When nothing happened, they looked back at each other.

"I can't stay." Zuko whispered as he finished pulling his shirt over his head. Looking around, he asked "have you seen my underwear?" Soundlessly, Katara held them up, letting them dangle from a single finger. "Ah. Thanks." Pulling them on, he looked up at her and frowned. "Come on Katara," he leaned over the bed and kissed her. "You know I can't stay."

She frowned as he pulled back and began to look for his pants. "No one would know. Your room is right next to mine. It's not like we don't walk out to breakfast together every morning anyways." She paused as he gave a small sound of triumph. Katara watched him step into his pants as she considered another approach. "Haven't you ever thought about morning sex? Imagine. You're waking up, and there I am, a warm body willing and waiting."

This time he paused, hand suspended and belt half tied. After a moment Zuko growled and finished knotting his belt. "No. Its bad enough Toph knows. I don't want to chance your brother finding out more than we have to. If I accidently killed him in self defense you'd never talk to me again. And then where would I be?" He stepped up to the bed again, leaning down for one more kiss. "Good night."

With a small smile, he was gone.

The early morning light gently sifted through his partially open curtains. The sound of the gulls flying over the beach followed and found their way into his room as well. The morning was pleasant and promising that the day ahead would be its equal. Today would be a great day to take advantage of Ember Island's beach. Especially right after the morning's training.

Zuko reached his hand over his head to stretch, but paused when his arm brushed something that wasn't supposed to be in his bed. Slowly, he rolled over.

"Katara!"


	2. Chapter 2

Surprise! Another chapter!

A couple of ideas have been bouncing around my head recently, so i thought it would be fun to update this silly little one shot. It was never something I intended to do. I tried to continue in the same vain as the original, but I think they could be considered separate entities if you like.

And without further ado, the next chapter.

* * *

The soft, fuzzy state of mind that resides quietly between awake and asleep was slowly creeping over Katara. With a happy sigh, she burrowed deeper beneath the soft blankets and slid her hand up to the arm wrapped snugly around her waist. It was late, and this bed was always her favorite, being at a perfect place between too soft and too hard. Her body hadn't been this relaxed in weeks.

Katara could just feel herself begin the final tip into sleep when the arm loosened its hold and the warm chest against her back pulled away. She tried vainly to grab at his hand, but it was too late. Katara rolled over in time to see Zuko stand up from the bed and pull his shirt over his head.

He was doing it again.

Katara flopped onto her back with a huff and stared up at the ceiling. "Zuko, why?" It came out as a whine, not at all how she'd planed it, but Katara chalked it up to fatigue after a stressful day. At any rate, the thought made her feel better.

"Katara, we go through this every time." Zuko's voice was strained, and he sounded as tired as she felt. "You know why I can't stay."

Angry, she sat up and glared at him. "No, I don't, actually. Would you care to explain?"

Zuko finished pulling his pants up and he glared back at her. "This doesn't mean anything," he gestured between the two of them, "remember? Besides," he sat down on the desk chair and began pulling on his socks and shoes. "Everyone wouldn't want to know. It'd just make things weird."

Katara's jaw dropped. "Weird? You think that would be – no, I'll tell you what's weird!" She could feel herself working into a good rage. The rest of Zuko's palace be damned. They could all wake up from her screaming for all she cared. In fact, she wanted them to! "What's weird is having sex, and then you running out the door as soon as you've caught your breath!"

He cringed. "Katara, please. I know the walls are thick here, but you shouldn't risk waking King Bumi up." Zuko looked at the wall on the other side of the bed fearfully. "The man is insane."

"Then I guess you should have thought of that before assigning him the room beside mine!" Katara shouted.

Zuko looked down nervously and fiddled with his pant leg. "I usually do, but we're still in the process of fixing his room after his last visit."

Katara growled and gripped the blanket tightly in her fists. Taking a deep, shaky breath, she counted to five before looking at Zuko again. "You know what, that's not the point. The point is that you're too ashamed for people to know that you associate with a lowly water tribe emissary in such a way. Admit it!"

He held up his hands, a pained expression on his face. "Katara, that isn't – "

"Then what is it, then!" she was shouting again. "Because as far as I can tell, we never really followed through with the whole friends with benefits thing."

Zuko sighed and rolled his eyes. "Katara," seeing her glare, he gulped. "Well, I guess I did spend part of the past summer with your family at the South Pole. And you do come with me as moral support when I make my monthly visit to my father. But that doesn't mean - !"

He stalled out again when he noticed she was still glaring. "I suppose I did take you dress shopping once." Her fingers tapped an angry staccato on her knee. Zuko laughed nervously. "Or was it twice? Three times? And you did accompany me to that formal dinner last spring. You looked gorgeous by the way. Did I ever tell you that? But still! Those don't mean anything!"

Katara threw her hands in the air and fell back on the bed again. "Ok. That's it. I give up." She mumbled pitifully to the ceiling. "Alone forever, that's what I'll be. I've endured the pitying looks from people asking after my love life for over a year now. And it's all because I'm the Fire Lord's mistress." She sighed. "How degrading?"

Zuko shifted nervously in his chair. "I," he stopped and cleared his throat. "Mistress is such a harsh term. And really, I feel it goes both ways. I mean," he spent a frantic moment searching for a way out of this. His poor brain was currently at an unfortunate level of 'fried' from hours spent in the policy meeting that day, and just wasn't ready for this sort of encounter.

"I, I would never call you that, Katara." He stuttered out.

Eyes flashing dangerously, Katara sat up once more. "Then what would you call this?" she asked sweetly.

Zuko cleared his throat again and scratched at his neck nervously. "I guess I'd call it friends with benefits?"

"Leave."

He knew from the quiet tone of her voice that he was in big, big trouble. "Katara, wait!"

"I said get out!" She screamed as loud as she could.

They both paused as there was a sharp creak, not unlike the sound of a splitting boulder. Suddenly Zuko was ducking flying bricks the size of his head. "Damn it all! You kids keep quiet. People are trying to sleep!" After the bricks stopped flying, Zuko had just enough time to see King Bumi in nothing but his bright green skivvies before the wall separating the rooms began to crumble. With the collapse of the wall, parts of the ceiling began caving in chunks as well. Katara screamed as bits of dust and rocks showered down on her.

Using the chaos as cover, Zuko made his escape.

Katara sat in bed with the blanket pulled up to her chin, shaking with barely contained rage, as she listened to King Bumi argue with the people in the rooms above them.

She was going to kill Zuko.


	3. Chapter 3

This ridiculous bit of fluff is the next installment of this silly little story. Honestly, I'm happy enough with where it has ended, so I may leave it as it is. We'll see what the future brings. And just in case this needs to be clarified, I do not own ATLA.

Happy reading :)

Ct

* * *

Katara sighed and rubbed at her eyes. She was too tired for this right now. All she wanted to do was crawl into bed. This conversation was very unwanted.

Toph had asked Katara to her room after their late dinner, claiming she had something to show her. After pretending interest in a small brown rock for twenty minutes, Katara had wearily stumbled back to her room to find Zuko waiting on the edge of her bed. She felt this was unfair. Owning the palace didn't give him the right to wander through people's newly repaired rooms!

Katara attempted to square her shoulders and face her troubles, but it was just too much effort. Instead she pulled out the desk chair and slumped into it. "Zuko, I can't do this anymore."

From the expression on his face, he'd clearly been expecting something along those lines. "Katara, please, let's talk about this."

She shook her head. "No, Zuko, I don't think so. After breaking up with Aang, your proposition seemed reasonable. You'd recently ended things with Mai, and we only saw each other maybe once a month. Neither of us was really in a position to date. But now?" She shrugged.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel we've been friends for a few years now. So having sex," Katara frowned. "I guess to me it felt like the next step. That's why I let things go so long. I was stupidly hoping that you might come to feel the same way."

Zuko stared at her in shock. "I," he paused and cleared his throat. "I guess I never realized."

Katara snorted and slid lower in the chair. "Clearly."

Suddenly angry, Zuko glared at her. "You agreed to this. If you had a problem with it, you should have said something."

"But I did!" Katara moaned in exasperation. "Every night that I've been lucky enough to have alone with you, I've begged you to stay. You always told me no, but I didn't give up. And this is on top of making extra visits to the Fire Nation that had nothing to do with work and inviting you to holiday with my family."

Zuko was confused. "I, Katara-"

Fed up with the conversation, Katara glared at him. "How about I put things in a way you might understand. Have you been seeing other girls?"

He frowned. "Well, no."

Katara nodded. "And how would you feel if I said I'd been seeing someone from the Northern Water Tribe?"

Zuko bristled like an angry squirrel-cat. "You haven't been, have you?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, I haven't. But now, Fire Lord Zuko, it's time I tell you that for the past year and a half, you've been in a relationship. And as of this moment, or more like as of three months ago, you've been dumped."

Zuko's jaw dropped. "I, but, we never, dumped?"

Katara sat up and began taking off her boots. "Yes, dumped. I understand my attempts at making this into a relationship were a little subtle, but Hell, even Sokka was getting suspicious." She set her boots to the side of the chair and walked to the door. Opening it, she turned sadly to Zuko. "Good night."

Zuko didn't move from her bed. Instead he glared at the stone floor as if it had done him a personal wrong.

Katara huffed and stomped her foot. She knew it was childish, but she didn't care. She was tired, damn it, and he wouldn't leave! "Zuko," she growled, "I said _good night!"_

He suddenly jerked his head up to look at her, his eyes pleading. "Let me stay." He whispered.

Katara's hand tightened around the door handle. "No, Zuko, don't do this. I've already told you-"

"Please let me stay." Zuko stood and stepped closer to her. "Please, let me stay the night."

Katara's fight or flight instincts kicked in, and she didn't know what to do. If she ran, she'd have to leave her boots behind. Plus she'd be leaving her sanctuary to the enemy. But if she stayed, could she win the fight? Could she continue telling him no?

Stepping back, her shoulder hit the door. "Zuko, please-"

He stepped closer. "Katara, I've missed you. You've been avoiding me for three months. I haven't gone that long without talking to you for four years!"

Katara rallied her flagging resolve and scowled at him. "I spent seven hours sitting next to you in meetings today. We've had plenty of time together. In fact, I'd say too much."

Zuko took another step. "It's not the same and you know it."

He was too close. Zuko shouldn't be that close. Her brain was telling her to run, to leave and bunk with Toph for the night.

Katara was still debating the merits of running when he sighed. "I'm sorry it took _getting dumped_ for me to see it. Things just seemed to be working the way they were, and I thought if it's not broke, don't fix it. You know?"

Katara wasn't convinced.

Panic began making a happy dance across Zuko's face. Apparently the heartfelt declaration of his boorish stupidity was meant to impress her. But it was going to take more than that to get back into her good graces! She spent over a year playing his little game. If he really wanted her, then he was gong to work for her! His one dramatic speech wasn't enough!

Well, maybe it had worked little.

"People around here don't swim much, and it's not as fun alone." Zuko was grasping at straws now. He'd already played his trump card, and his back ups were embarrassingly pitiful. Shaking his head, he snorted. "This is going to sound stupid, but I miss having an argument where the outcome doesn't have world altering effects. The people around here agree with everything I say." He chuckled and nervously ran his hand through his hair.

Katara could feel herself relax when he laughed. It was a nice laugh. "Did you know that I told my maid that the sky was green, just to see her reaction? Do you know what she did?"

Katara felt herself shake her head no.

"She looked out the window and then agreed with me. She _agreed_ with me!"

Katara couldn't help it. Zuko seemed so upset by this that she laughed. "She didn't!"

"Yes, she did."

Laughing, Katara closed the door. Maybe this wasn't the best decision. Maybe she'd regret it tomorrow, or maybe next week, or maybe a year from now. But right now it didn't matter. What did matter was that she was tired and she's missed him.

Zuko's eyes lit up as the door clicked shut and he took one last step toward her. There were inches between them now, and Katara was forced to tip her head back to see his face. "Does this mean I can stay?"

Katara placed her hands on his shoulders and tilted her head to the side. "I don't know. That depends."

Struggling not to smile, Zuko slid his hands up to her hips. "What are your conditions?"

She ran a hand up his neck and into his hair. It was getting long. "It depends," she said. "Can you see yourself in a long term relationship?"

Smiling, he brushed his lips lightly across hers. Katara shivered. How she had missed this boy!

"I've been in one for over a year. I see no reason to stop now."


End file.
